SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 12/19/12 -- RainStor, a provider of database solutions for Big Data, today released its predictions focused on enterprise Big Data initiatives in 2013. As the year draws to a close, global organizations face the most prominent IT and business challenge: Big Data. The focus for IT will be to provide scalable, high-performance analytics at the lowest cost, as business users demand continuous access to both current and historical data. By analyzing this data using multiple tools and approaches, companies not only gain greater intelligence, but also a competitive advantage.

Based on customer and partner experience, market research and conversations with experts, RainStor offers its top Big Data predictions for 2013:

Prediction 1: Enterprise Big Data Initiatives Move out of the Sandbox and Define a Clear Set of Business and Technology RequirementsThroughout 2012, enterprise adoption of Big Data initiatives have escalated faster than most had predicted. According to a recent Computerworld(1) study among 300 of the world's largest enterprises, the volume of data is expected to increase by about 60 percent in 2013 with 13 percent reporting they have Big Data initiatives already in place. An additional 38 percent of respondents are implementing or likely to implement Big Data projects over the next year.

Enterprises are forming dedicated Big Data teams, and for many it has become a line item on the budget as they continue to find better approaches to managing, storing and analyzing Big Data. At the same time, requirements are becoming more clearly defined and distinct patterns are emerging, such as scalability at the lowest cost, rapid response query and analysis, and ability to leverage existing standards-based tools that include SQL and BI. This is in addition to built-in security and data availability features that enterprises have come to expect when handling mission critical data assets.

Prediction 2: Companies will Look to New Technology Combinations, other than Hadoop, when Managing Big DataOver the past year, Apache Hadoop has gained momentum in the enterprise, which was exemplified by the October 2012 Hadoop World event where 2,500 attendees gathered -- an increase from 500 attendees just three years earlier. Hadoop, popularized by Web 2.0 organizations, is now taken seriously among banks, financial institutions, communications operators, large retailers and others. However, Big Data initiatives are not only centered on the Hadoop platform.

Business and IT challenges are being solved using a combination of different technologies that work in concert, which varies by sector and even by company. Enterprises are deploying on private clouds in order to manage data estates and a combination of both traditional databases and data warehouse environments, alongside Hadoop-based data management environments that run on a variety of hardware including NAS and object stores. A common theme across all enterprise Big Data projects is the desire to get up and running quickly without causing disruption to existing IT environments and realizing a result in less than 12 months.

Prediction 3: Budget Limitations will Pose one of the Biggest Hurdles to Solving Big Data ChallengesBig Data spending is on the rise, but over the coming year, cost will remain one of the biggest hurdles to overcome when initiating Big Data projects. According to a recent analyst report, Big Data spending is projected to drive $34 billion in 2013. Organizations in particular sectors must keep data online and available because compliance regulations dictate so, and additionally businesses want to harness more raw data from multiple sources in order to conduct better analytics. Getting the balance right -- finding the most efficient technology infrastructure while satisfying business demands -- is the challenge.

Growth rates are not slowing down. Building out capacity for existing needs and future requirements is critical. Too much too soon is not the way to go, and Big Data does not necessarily mean big budgets. The tolerance for $20,000 - $40,000 per terabyte of managed data is fast disappearing in the minds of enterprise decision makers.

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Prediction 4: Big Data Tools Must Satisfy both Business and Technical UsersIn 2013, we will see increased demand for Big Data tools and applications that will be easier to use and will satisfy the business user, not just the technical or data scientist users. All market indicators point to this. If you look at Hadoop-based technology capabilities, many are still immature and require unique specialized skills. We have already seen new product announcements that address this need, including the recent announcements on Cloudera Impala and Microsoft Polybase. In fact, some of these capabilities already exist today, making it easier to access the right data at the right time with the best set of tools.

Prediction 5: Heavyweights, such as Oracle and IBM, will Make Acquisitions in the Big Data Market Large organizations have already embraced Big Data, which has legitimized the market over the past year. We expect that some of the established players who lack unique technology capabilities or expertise will make acquisitions in 2013. The two obvious heavyweights are Oracle and IBM -- which already have a diverse portfolio of established products in the data management sector, but who also recognize that time to market is critical in order to gain a stronger foothold with an all encompassing Big Data offering for enterprise customers.

Executive Quote"The increasing need to leverage Big Data for competitive advantage, along with the rise in innovative product offerings, will completely change the way customers store, manage and analyze their most critical asset -- data. Enabling enterprise customers to manage petabyte scale data environments in a much more efficient and cost effective way is what is now required. Over the next 12 months, Big Data will take the spotlight because it is on every company's short list."
-- John Bantleman, CEO of RainStor

About RainStorRainStor provides Big Data management software. RainStor's database enables the world's largest companies to keep and access limitless amounts of data for as long as they want at the lowest cost. It features the highest level of compression on the market, together with high performance on-demand query and simplified management. RainStor runs natively on a variety of architectures and infrastructure including Hadoop. RainStor's leading partners include Amdocs, Anritsu, AdaptiveMobile, Dell, HP, Qosmos and Teradata.

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